We rarely cover F1 testing in depth because pre-season sessions are often inconclusive. The unofficial test in Barcelona was a case in point—a private event where teams ran systems checks under the new rules.

Official testing kicks off in Bahrain in a few days, running six days in total. Early pace is meaningless: every team has a program, and no one reveals their true hand.

A trouble-free test with high mileage hints at reliability, but it says nothing about outright speed. A car that runs consistently isn’t automatically fast.

Ignore the headlines about fastest laps—they’re mostly for sponsors. Ferrari, in particular, often sets the quickest times purely for publicity and to stroke corporate egos at VIP events.

We’ll only know which team has the fastest package when the first race hits Australia on March 8. By then, most cars will have evolved from testing spec to full Grand Prix spec.

Bahrain testing runs from February 11 to February 18.